Panique en plein ciel

The title really says it all, and this film never shakes off its TV style, with your typical bad acting and over the top performances in some places, but Kate Jackson is pretty convincing in her role as an air stewardess, although sometimes you may think that if she just calls Charlie and asks for his help, she'll become Sabrina Duncan all over again!

There have been countless TV movies/dramas detailing the effects of air disasters and so on, and I think to myself why the time and effort was wasted in making yet another one. In a nutshell, this really does not make viewers who are rather timid of flying (like myself) feel any better, and for those who are not frightened of air travel, watching something like Panic In The Skies will not be something they would want to remember.

Nevertheless, Panic In The Skies does contain heart-stopping moments mixed with the usual sympathetic and emotional aspects of people fearing for their lives, and perhaps this is what makes it a little more interesting for the viewer who would actually want to see the film to the end and find out what happens, even if we can guess beforehand! 6/10

Some people here seem to think this movie is bad. I wonder if any of them have seen Airspeed which in my opinion was stupid, boring and laughable most of the time. This movie might not be 100% realistic but at least it seems to have gotten a little more thought and was more entertaining than Airspeed. This movie gets a 6/10.

Perhaps I have a soft spot for Kate Jackson. This movie does not have as much reality and plausibility as "The Jetsons", and yet somehow, she can carry it and make this movie entertaining. Just forget about reality and enjoy the show.

Finally, a project worthy of Kate Jackson's talent and star power. This is the lowest budget TV movie I have ever seen. It used every disaster plane movie trick that was cheap. It even looks like it was videotaped instead of filmed.

It has some fun moments. The plane was struck by lightning which killed the flight crew. Kate Jackson asks everyone not to panic then asks of anyone can fly the plane. Straight out of Airplane! Eric Estrada plays an action movie star. Passengers beg him to save the plane.

There is a nine year old girl, a pregnant woman about to give birth, and a rare Corvette in the cargo hold. Can they be saved? Also, a ferocious fog has escaped from the on board kennel.

Ground control thinks they might have to shoot down the plane. With this horrible cast is there any choice?

Maybe I was in a forgiving mood, but I didn't think 'Panic In The Skies!' - exclamation! - was that bad. On a sliding scale for plane-disaster movies, it was somewhere near the top. The cliches, given that the genre demands at least a few, were limited: nobody had a mobile phone easily at hand (Airspeed), and there were no pilots (Rough Air), doctors, or nuns with guitars among the passengers. Nor were ground control on hand to help. There was the lone child, the pregnant woman and/or newly pregnant stewardess, plus the elderly couple, but I would have started to get really nervous without some familiar stereotypes. What about the Bar-B-Pilots, though, or the dog attack in the cargo hold? And for the 'stewardess who holds it all together before falling in love with the conman hero', we got 'stewardess who falls to pieces' as a bonus package (normally the hero pilot's role). How's that for equality? The computer graphics let the climax down a little, but all in all, I really didn't end up cringing in my seat (see Final Descent, and its train sequel, Final Run. Guffaw, snort).